The Arab Agenda

Chapter 5

Bahrain: Back in time 2004

In 2004, a "blogfest" was organized calling all prominent bloggers in Bahrain to participate: "This Thursday we will be holding the first official Bahrain Blogfest. We already have five people confirmed (including a visitor from Qatar!) and it would great to have even more people show up"..........

"We promise not to reveal your identity, and feel free to bring a friend along if you want. I'm really looking forward to finally meeting you all in person."...."Our meet up planned for this Thursday promises even more, with a Qatar-based American Muslim convert, and the author of Bahrain's first novel in English."

By 2005 and Reporters without Borders quoted from the Bahrain bloggers "We've broken the government's news monopoly." Originally from Southeast Asia, Chan'ad Bahraini was living in Bahrain, where he set up a blog.

On the 17th of May 2005, Mark Glaser wrote: Online forums, bloggers become vital media outlets in Bahrain.

"Bahrain finds itself in the stutter-start of democratic reform, a longtime emirate which shifted gears in 1999 when Sheikh Isa died and a more liberal Prince Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, took over. Political prisoners were freed, and a new constitution allowed for elections to a lower house of parliament in 2002, but the new king retained power to appoint an upper house of parliament, the prime minister and cabinet and all the judges."

"The importance of Bahrain as the smallest emirate 2005"

The country's population was approximately 700,000, with a literacy rate of almost 90%. More than half owned cell phones and nearly 200,000 Internet users in 2003, according to the CIA Fact book on Bahrain.

As in Iraq's history, although Bahrain has a very minor majority of Shi'ite Muslims, it is ruled by Sunni Muslims.

While the U.S. considers Bahrain to be an important ally, with the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet based there as a jumping off point during the second Iraq War, Bahrain had backslid on its program of reforms, especially with regards to the internet.

Mark Glaser stated "there are laws restricting freedom of press, the Ministry of Interior has given all Web sites six months to register with the government, and three proprietors of the popular Bahrainonline.org forum were arrested in February."

In 2005 a non-Bahraini blogger, Juan Cole complained that the American media hadn't been paying much attention to Bahrain -- including protests by Shi'ites for constitutional reform -- he stated "the Wall Street Journal recently fronted a deep report on problems in Bahrain titled, "After High Hopes, Democracy Project [note the democracy project phrase]in Bahrain Falters."

"While the kingdom has seen a surge of tourism from other Arab countries since its liberalization, the recent bad publicity from the registration drive and the Bahrainonline arrests show that reform isn't easy".- Juan Cole

Blogging was a part of the "democracy promotion". It had provided a voice (although quite bias) and an outlet to the west on how the Arab world "thinks" and provided the West indirect reports as to the way population in Bahrain and the MENA region thought.

However there were only a few bloggers at the time and most of them were opposition to the Bahrain Government and not moderates. Blogging started to influence public opinion in the direction pre-determined by democracy promoters in the MENA region.